beyOnd

Chapter Seventeen

Tuesday, 31st January, 2023: 1:35 p.m. (Year 10s Lunch)

I was sat outside in the football field during lunch time, watching how the team had been frantically chasing a ball for almost 20 minutes. I honestly don’t understand the concept of football. What’s so special about chasing a ball around with you teammates and throwing it into some net after 30 minutes of s**t?

I gazed soullessly upon the field, sat right at the top of the stairs that led up to the school. Unfortunately, the sun had been beaming today, yet it was still impeccably cold out. What’s the point of the sun if it can’t even warm up the environment? Most likely climate change, but anyway, I watched how the students had been screaming at each other’s faces to pass the ball, frantically moving from here to there.

Someone then taps my shoulder. I look behind me, just to realize that it had been Wook-jin. “Hello!” he joyously says, waving a hand in the air.

“Hey,” I said, smiling back at him.

“Would you mind if I show you something?” he asked. I didn’t know what he meant exactly, but I shook my head, because I can definitely tell that he would never do such a horrible thing to me.

“Great,” he said. He grabbed my hand and stood up, tugging my arm to stand up as well. Swiftly, he pulls me close and runs off into the building, my hand still in his.

“You’re gonna show me now?” I asked.

“Obviously,” he said, still heading inside, “when did you expect me to show you?” I stay silent. He (basically) drags me into the music hall right after, closing the door right behind us.

The room was dark, with only the sunlight providing us. It gave the room an almost orange hue, beaming against the plastic surfaces of the instruments. The keys of the Grand Piano that lay in the center of the room reflected off the sunlight brightly with its glossy finish, and it was almost traced with the sunlight like an outline.

The windows remain open, letting a cool breeze flow into the room like an Aircon. “Why are we in the music hall?” I asked. Wook-jin looks over his shoulder, his eyes locking with mine. He says nothing and smiles, pulling me over to the piano.

He sat himself down, beckoning me to sit right beside him. And so I do. “You know how to play?” I ask.

“I’ve known since I was…8?” he said.

“Prove it.”

“That’s just why I brought you here with me.” His gaze shifts to the piano, observing the keys with great interest. He lays his fingers onto the keys at one go, playing the first note of the melody. Then followed the second. Then the third.

With every note, it started to create a melody. And with every melody, it inched closer to a symphony. As I gazed deeper into his coal grey eyes, with was lost with their dedication; their concentration.

I smile with the thought, yet I’m sure he barely even noticed. The more he played, the more my eyes wanted to close. Not because the song was boring. The song was – in fact – one of the best I’ve heard. I couldn’t tell if he’d followed the melody from an actual song, or if he made it himself, but all I can tell is that it was something I never want to forget.

Slowly, I lay my head on his shoulder and close my eyes, a smile still playing on my lips. Yet he didn’t stop playing. It was like his life had been devoted to the piano. I didn’t even know he was this good.

Suddenly, the melody stopped abruptly, leaving us two in the silence that once had taken over the room. I couldn’t catch the ending completely, as I’d almost drifted asleep, but all I can tell was that the end had almost been played adagio. I wish it didn’t have to end this soon. I could’ve heard that for my life.

My eyes open softly. “That’s the end?”

“Yeah. That’s the end.”

“So soon?”

“That’s how long I made the song. I could extend it if you want.”

“No. It’s perfect enough.”

“I’m glad you like it.” We stay silent for a while. Nothing could be heard except for the curtains grazing upon the rough walls; the winter birds chirping outside as the perched on the window’s edge; the sound of the bare branched of the trees rustling against each other in the wind.

Then, a step. Someone’d just entered the hallway. Our gazes both shifted to the door, which’d been shifting open and closed in the wind. “s**t…” I hear Wook-jin say.

“We gotta run,” I said, slowly standing up. He follows from behind as I slowly lead him close to a cupboard. We could’ve hid there for now. As the steps got louder, I slowly reached for the handle. “Step…step…step…” The door handle slowly pushed open. “Now,” I mutter, immediately opening the cupboard door.

I pull Wook-jin inside and immediately shut the door, hoping to my life we wouldn’t be caught. Instead, Wook-jin ended up on top of me as I sat on the ground of the cupboard. He was just inches away for hell’s sake.

It was a lot like the scenes in the shows. When the main lead would catch the second lead in their arms and they end up kissing. But I guess that wasn’t our case. At least our lips didn’t touch, which was the only thing I was genuinely glad about. What would’ve happened if they did, though?

His lips had been inching close to mine, yet still untouched. His breath was warm against the my skin, and his hands were laid against my waist by accident. His eyes were filled with utter shock, lips almost trembling. Yet he still gazed at me with those beautiful coal grey eyes that I just couldn’t get enough of.

I couldn’t bare to look at him, so I immediately flicked my gaze to the ground instead. We stay in that position for a while, not even daring to talk. Who knew if that teacher was still in here?

He shifts in his position, tapping me gently on the shoulder. “Yongsoo,” he mutters, “I think the teacher’s gone now. I heard the front door just now.”

I take a peek at him. “You sure?”

He smiles, like he always would. “Yeah. I’m definitely sure.” Slowly, he gets off me and opens the cupboard door, allowing a cool breeze to hit us. I was glad I was finally out of there. But I just wish we could’ve done more—wait, what am I even saying? I’m spouting too much nonsense all the time.

He lends a hand out to me, and I slowly lay my hand in his, pushing myself back off the ground. “Thanks,” I tell him, brushing off all the dust that’d came from the cupboard. Again, he gave me that gaze. The gaze he would make when he was about to do something beautifully stupid.

“Shall we head back to break now?” he asked.

“Yeah, sure.” He then interlocked our fingers together and ran out the door with me, all the way to the front gates where we were having our break. I wish I could be with him forever. I wish I could experience this every day. I would never get tired of this – ever in my life – .

. . .

“Promise me you’re coming to my place tomorrow?” Wook-jin asked as we entered the parking lot of my apartment.

“If my Father allows it, of course,” I tell him. The music had been playing on the radio through Wook-jin’s Spotify, yet I don’t even know what playlist we were playing. It was – and most likely is – ys. The Girl in My Memories by jeebanoff had been playing, slowly reaching the end of the song.

“That’s the end of the album…” Wook-jin said as he stopped the car, leaning close to the radio to switch it off.

“Already?” I ask.

“There aren’t many songs in here. Of course it would be quite short.”

“Oh…I see.”

“But still. Tomorrow, after school, come to my place until your curfew.”

“I’ll remember to do that,” I say with a small smile on my face. I then hop out of his car and shut the door. He waves me goodbye from inside, since he wouldn’t be getting out again.

“Don’t forget!” he says as he starts up the engine again.

“I won’t,” I said. “Anyway, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Happy early birthday!”